Using the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library and Congressional records, we examined the tobacco industry's involvement with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). During legislative drafting of the ADA (1989-1990), the Tobacco Institute, the tobacco industry's lobbying and public relations arm at the time, worked with industry lawyers and civil rights groups to include smoking in the ADA's definition of "disability." Focus was on smoking as a perceived rather than actual disability so that tobacco companies could maintain that smoking is not addictive...

OBJECTIVES: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) continues to be used in England, but without comprehensive national auditing. Therefore, information was gathered on usage, demographics, consent, and adherence to the guidelines of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (N.I.C.E.) and to the Mental Health Act. DESIGN AND METHODS: Freedom of Information Act requests were sent to 56 National Health Service Trusts. RESULTS: Thirty-two trusts provided some usable data...

The objective of this paper is to examine the implementation of Colombia's tobacco control law. Methods involved are triangulated government legislation, news sources, and interviews with policy-makers and health advocates in Colombia. Colombia, a middle-income country, passed a tobacco control law in 2009 that included a prohibition on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship; and required pictorial health warning labels, ingredients disclosure, and a prohibition on individual cigarette sales. Tobacco companies challenged the implementation through litigation, tested government enforcement of advertising provisions and regulations on ingredients disclosure, and lobbied local governments to deprioritise policy responses to single cigarette sales...

In the US, where registration of lobbyists is mandatory, the pharmaceutical industry and private health-care providers spend huge amounts of money seeking to influence health policies and government decisions. In Brazil, where lobbying lacks transparency, there is virtually no data on drug industry expenditure to persuade legislators and government officials of their viewpoints and to influence decision-making according to commercial interests. Since 1990, however, the Associação da Indústria Farmacêutica de Pesquisa (Interfarma - Pharmaceutical Research Industry Association), Brazilian counterpart of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), main lobbying organization of the US pharmaceutical industry, has played a major role in the advocacy of interests of major drug companies...

Industry lobbying remains an obstacle to effective health-oriented alcohol policy. In 2013, an increase in excise tax on spirits was announced by the Polish government. This article presents a qualitative analysis of the public debate that ensued on the potential economic, health and social effects of the policy. It focuses on how competing groups, including industry actors, framed their position and sought to dominate the debate. Online archives of five Polish national newspapers, two spirits trade associations, and parliamentary and ministerial archives were searched...

The evidence. Salt (i.e. sodium chloride) is causally related to blood pressure (BP). The higher the salt intake, the higher the BP, an effect seen since birth. A small and sustained reduction in salt intake causes a fall in BP. The evidence from controlled studies, small and large, short and long, all agree on the following: (1) salt intake is one of the major determinants of BP in populations and individuals; (2) a reduction in salt intake causes a dose-dependent reduction in BP - the lower the salt the lower the BP; (3) the effect is seen in both sexes, in people of all ages and ethnic groups, and with all starting BPs...

INTRODUCTION: Obesity is a pervasive public health problem in the U.S. Reducing soda consumption is important for stemming the obesity epidemic. However, several articles and one book suggest that soda companies are using their resources to impede public health interventions that might reduce soda consumption. Although corporate sponsorship by tobacco and alcohol companies has been studied extensively, there has been no systematic attempt to catalog sponsorship activities of soda companies...

BACKGROUND: The proposed Pharmacy Bill of Malaysia which served to consolidate and harmonise the existing pharmacy legislation which has been used for more than 60 years. This new Pharmacy Bill contains 17 parts and a total of 170 legislative sections covering laws governing pharmacy practice, medicinal products classification, registration, sale, supply, licensing etc. Our article could serve as a case study on pharmacy jurisprudence and drug regulation as well as the governance for medicines...

The evidence. Salt (i.e. sodium chloride) is causally related to blood pressure (BP). The higher the salt intake, the higher the BP, an effect seen since birth. A small and sustained reduction in salt intake causes a fall in BP. The evidence from controlled studies, small and large, short and long, all agree on the following: (1) salt intake is one of the major determinants of BP in populations and individuals; (2) a reduction in salt intake causes a dose-dependent reduction in BP - the lower the salt the lower the BP; (3) the effect is seen in both sexes, in people of all ages and ethnic groups, and with all starting BPs...

There is a growing desire within the chiropractic profession to expand the scope of practice to include limited medication prescription rights for the treatment of spine-related and other musculoskeletal conditions. Such prescribing rights have been successfully incorporated into a number of chiropractic jurisdictions worldwide. If limited to a musculoskeletal scope, medication prescription rights have the potential to change the present role of chiropractors within the healthcare system by paving the way for practitioners to become comprehensive specialists in the conservative management of spine / musculoskeletal disorders...

The 20th anniversary of the National Firearms Agreement (NFA) offers lessons for mental health and public health. Along with similar international legislation, the NFA exemplifies how firearms regulation can prevent firearm mortality and injuries. The gun lobby claims that mental illness underpins gun violence and should be a key site for intervention. A modest but significant link exists between mental disorders and community violence. However, the vast majority of mentally ill individuals are not violent...

AIMS: This case study identifies the influence and mechanisms that the alcohol industry in Brazil has been able to bring to bear to maintain self-regulation in the marketing of beer and many wines set against a trend of increasing alcohol consumption in Brazil, particularly among young people and women. It identifies the forms of power and strategies used by the alcohol industry in Brazil that may be useful for other countries to consider in seeking to move from self-regulation to state regulation of alcohol marketing...

OBJECTIVE: To illuminate the key components of multi-sector reform to address the obesogenic environment in New York City during the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg from 2002 to 2013, we conducted a case study consisting of interviews with and a critical analysis of the experiences of leading decision makers and implementers. METHOD: Key informant interviews (N = 41) conducted in 2014 were recorded, transcribed, coded, and thematically analyzed. Participants included officials from the Health Department and other New York City Government agencies, academics, civil society members, and private sector executives...

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the passage of Costa Rica's 2012 tobacco control law. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Review of legislation, newspaper articles, and key informant interviews. RESULTS: Tobacco control advocates, in close collaboration with international health groups, recruited national, regional and international experts to testify in the Legislative Assembly, implemented grassroots advocacy campaigns, and generated media coverage to enact strong legislation in March 2012 consistent with the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, despite tobacco industry lobbying efforts that for decades blocked effective tobacco control legislation...

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the process of implementing and enforcing smoke-free environments, tobacco advertising, tobacco taxes and health warning labels from Costa Rica's 2012 tobacco control law. METHOD: Review of tobacco control legislation, newspaper articles and interviewing key informants. RESULTS: Despite overcoming decades of tobacco industry dominance to win enactment of a strong tobacco control law in March 2012 consistent with WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the tobacco industry and their allies lobbied executive branch authorities for exemptions in smoke-free environments to create public confusion, and continued to report in the media that increasing cigarette taxes led to a rise in illicit trade...

The pivotal roles of regulatory jurisdictions in the feed additive sector cannot be over-emphasized. In the European Union (EU), antioxidant substances are authorized as feed additives for prolonging the shelf life of feedstuffs based on their effect for preventing lipid peroxidation. However, the efficacy of antioxidants transcends their functional use as technological additives in animal feeds. Promising research results have revealed the in vivo efficacy of dietary antioxidants for combating oxidative stress in production animals...

OBJECTIVES: We examined the potential economic, policy, and political influences on the decisions of the 50 US states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. METHODS: We related a measure of relative state progress toward Medicaid expansion updated to 2015 to each state's economic circumstances, established policy frameworks in states, partisan control of state government, and lobbyists for businesses, medical professionals, unions, and public interest organizations...